


Per aspera ad astra

by vtholmes



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blue Paladin Lance (Voltron), Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Red Paladin Keith (Voltron), Very Mild Gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:20:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29937468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vtholmes/pseuds/vtholmes
Summary: Lance was not entirely sure how they ended up in this situation. It was a simple intel mission that was not supposed to even include fighting. Not the sentries, and definitely not the Galra soldiers. There had to be a camera or someone they hadn't seen, but-Lance ducked as one of the sentries fired a shot in his direction, and took cover behind a nearby crate. It was definitely not time for thinking about who made a mistake, although he automatically decided to blame Keith. The stupid, hotheaded idiot, who, Lance had noticed as he started shooting at the sentries from behind his crate, had taken on a bunch of actual Galra on his own.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Kudos: 28





	Per aspera ad astra

**Author's Note:**

> a little thing I wrote for a challenge in a discord server I'm in
> 
> prompts I used are in the end notes

Lance was not entirely sure how they ended up in this situation. It was a simple intel mission that was not supposed to even include fighting. Not the sentries, and definitely not the Galra soldiers. There had to be a camera or someone they hadn't seen, but-

Lance ducked as one of the sentries fired a shot in his direction, and took cover behind a nearby crate. It was definitely not time for thinking about who made a mistake, although he automatically decided to blame Keith. The stupid, hotheaded idiot, who, Lance had noticed as he started shooting at the sentries from behind his crate, had taken on a bunch of actual Galra on his own.

There was certain elegance in the way his rival fought, he couldn't help but think, but before he could continue that stream of thought he had to duck as another group of soldiers figured out he'd been behind that crate. He rethought what he was going to do, then rolled from behind the crate, shot at the nearest one's foot then ran across the room and took shelter behind a different crate.

He managed to get another glance of his teammate in that movement, although he couldn't quite see what Keith was up to. He definitely didn't seem like he had any objections against severly hurting the Galra that Lance had. He took a deep breath, readying himself for another attack. Science might not have been his strong suit, but he did know that he could take advantage of the only slightly lower gravity of the place.

In one swift motion, he jumped on top of the crate he was hiding behind, then before losing momentum jumped again, landing on a nearby sentry's face and shot another soldier in their gun-holding arm. The sentry meanwhile landed on its back, and Lance could shoot its chest and it stopped working. He ducked to avoid being shot, and a metallic thump behind him alerted him of another fallen sentry.

For a moment he regretted that there was nobody noteworthy to see him at his most badass, then caught himself thinking about Keith once more. He shot a couple more of nearby sentries before letting himself to take another glance at Keith, who'd gotten nearer since he last entered his field of vision.

Although Lance knew that Keith could easily take on two extra enemies for every one that he did, he couldn't help but feel like the other guy was severly outnumbered. He rushed over, shooting another sentry that was in his way, and knocked out the Galra soldier nearest to Keith.

"I had that one," Keith complained, "Duck."

Lance followed the instruction, knowing that if he didn't, the noise of metal being cut through would have been a lot more fleshy.

"Thanks," Lance reluctantly mumbled, already swinging his bayard, still a gun, into the nearest Galra soldier's stomach.

He cringed when Keith stabbed them right afterwards. A momentary silence signifying the end of the fight followed.

"You didn't have to do _that_ ," he turned to Keith in annoyance.

Lance really wanted to be mad at him, but instead, he found himself making sure that Keith wasn't showing any signs he was hurt. He was unhumanly pale and had that strange purple undertone to his skin, but that was normal for him, even though it still made Lance, so used to people at least having a strong sun tan, worry that Keith might have been sick.

"Well, I did it anyway," Keith responded nonchalantly.

Lance crossed his arms on his chest and let out a huff. "You still didn't _have_ to. Anyway, we should leave before more Galra show up."

"S-," Keith started to say, but before he could even finish the first word, his eyes grew bigger in surprise, and then he pushed Lance aside. He stumbled and lost his balance, falling onto his left side.

"Hey, what was this fo-?" he called, but cut himself off when he rolled onto his back and found his answer.

More Galra soldiers, and even more sentries arrived while they were talking, and Keith pushed him out of the way so he wouldn't get hit. His shield was now up, and bayard activated again, and Lance found himself unable to move.

Not because he was hurt or anything, he was just too captivated by Keith.

By how _handsome_ Keith was.

_Oh._

**_Oh fuck._ **

He thought that _Keith_ was _handsome_.

"Are you going to help me, or are you just going to sit there?!" Keith yelled. The Galra reinforcements pushed him back so he was standing right next to Lance.

"Oh ... yeah, right," Lance nodded, and, still a little dazed, pushed himself off the ground so fast he'd almost lost his balance again. Lifting his bayard, once again a gun, he shot the nearest sentry, then knocked out the Galra soldier that came dangerously close to them. "As I said, we have to leave, we can't keep going like that forever."

"You said _should_ before," Keith remarked. They were standing back to back now, surrounded by enemies from all sides, and Lance could pick up Keith's breathing, unusually shallow and sharp. He tried to convince himself, that it was simply because he was getting tired from the fighting, but that's not how his breathing usually sounded during a fight.

"Well, the circumstance changed," Lance said, pushing away a soldier, "and we _have_ to leave."

Keith let out a sigh that ended in a soft grunt of pain. "Fine. Head for the exit, I'll hold them back."

Lance would've happily done that usually, and clear the way out for Keith too, but it wasn't usually. Keith was hurt, and had to get out of there as soon as possible.

"No. _You_ head for the exit. I'll cover you."

Keith let out a grunt of complaint, and Lance couldn't help but notice again how strained he sounded.

"Listen, I know you're hurt-."

"I'm _not_ hurt," Keith asserted, "I'm ... I'm fine."

"Bullshit."

"I can keep going," he insisted, and Lance could hear him cutting apart a sentry or a couple. "I _will_ keep going."

Lance let out a frustrated groan. "I can't keep fighting. And you," he turned around and pulled Keith's upper right arm so he would turn towards him, "Definitely can't either."

"I can."

The noises of the Galra soldiers' and the sentries' guns, as well as the electric thunks as the laser bullets clashed with their shields, reminded Lance that they were in middle of a battle, but he couldn't be bothered by that at the moment.

He shot another sentry that appeared on his right, struggling to maintain eye contact with Keith without thinking about how it would feel to kiss him right now. He imagined that it would probably not end well, Keith had an entire sword in his hands at the moment. His eyes dropped, instinctively searching for the wound he was certain existed, and he let out a soft gasp when he found what he was looking for. A fairly big chunk of the undersuit on Keith's right side was missing, and the skin that was showing was burnt and bleeding.

"You're hurt ..." Lance softly mumbled, "Keith ... please ..."

"Fine," Keith said, a little too forcefully. He was clearly annoyed as he pulled his arm out of Lance's hold. "But if you don't follow right behind me I'll kill you."

Lance let out an amused breath. "Alright, that's fair."

The few moments they weren't focused on the enemies seemed to only lure in more of them, and keeping the path clear for Keith and himself was a lot more tedious than Lance expected it to be. They were halfway towards the exit and the safety of their lions, when Keith suddenly collapsed, and let out a whimper of pain. The world seemed to slow down for a moment as his name ecaped Lance's lips, and he rushed over to help him get up.

"Hey man, stay with me, we're almost there," he softly said as he swung Keith's right arm around his shoulders, and wrapped his left arm around Keith for additional support.

The only response he got from Keith was a quieter, more agonized whimper.

He didn't quite know how he managed to carry both his own and Keith's weight out of the room, or how he didn't get hurt himself, since he completely forgot about the enemies and instead completely focused on getting Keith out of the situation. By the time they were safely inside the Blue Lion and on the way back to the castle, with Red right behind them, all the adrenaline that filled Lance just minutes earlier was gone, and left him shaken and worried.

Keith was definitely unhealthily pale now, and feverish. His forehead was covered in cold sweat, and since the fight, his breathing had become even shallower. Lance let his lion take over the piloting as soon as they were out of Galra fighters' range, and was now kneeling on the floor, with Keith's head in his lap, trying to keep him awake even though he knew that he's already lost consciousness.

"Allura? Coran? Anyone?" he commed the bridge of the Castle of Lions, realizing that his own voice was shaky and weak.

"Lance?!" Allura's voice, already filled with worry came through, "What happened?!"

"Keith ... Keith's hurt ... very badly ..." he heard himself say, "There were ... so many of them ..."

"Where are you now?"

"On our way back ... we should be there any moment now ..."

"I'll get Coran to ready a Sleep Pod."

***

Lance knew that he should move, but he couldn't quite get himself to leave the medical wing. A part of him was worried that if he took his eyes off Keith for more than a second, he would slip away. The only thing that made Lance's focus change was food, and even then he'd accepted it a lot more reluctantly than usually.

He knew it was his fault Keith was hurt. He shouldn't have gotten distracted, and he should've helped Keith with the Galra sooner.

The fantasy floating around his mind that included Keith waking up and kissing him was keeping Lance awake, despite how hard he tried to not think about the idiot in _that_ way. He tried to convince himself he'd so much rather kiss _Zarkon_ than Keith, even though it was clearly not the case. Out of all the other guys his age that he could've liked like _that_ , it had to be _him_. Coming to terms with his realization was certainly easier when Keith wasn't awake to open his mouth and say words and be annoying, but Lance was realizing how worried he was, and how much he was missing his _esteemed rival_.

He let out a sigh. "Wake up, _please_ ..." He wished he could cry, but in the first few days, he did so much of it, that his tear ducts were dry and he was just so tired of all the emotions swirling inside him. "I ... I know it's my fault ... and you're probably annoyed at me but ... Keith, _please_ ... I miss you ..."

Keith didn't wake up, most likely just to spite him.

"I see how it is-," Lance huffed, starting to get up.

Just when he decided to get properly offended, the cryo-replenisher opened, and Keith stumbled forward, and straight into Lance, who barely had enough time to brace himself for catching Keith.

"I'm sorry ..." was the first thing Keith muttered before he even managed to gain any balance, "Should've told you I was hurt ..."

"No, no, no, _I'm_ sorry," Lance responded, elated by the fact Keith was awake, and alright. "It's my fault you got hurt."

Keith took a step back and shook his head. "No ... it's not. I'm sorry, I wasn't being careful ... and showing off. A little. You didn't hear that."

"Ooh you were showing off~?" A teasing grin grew on Lance's face, then he paused and frowned. "W-w-wait, _why_ were you showing off?"

He noticed Keith's cheeks very distinctly turn dark pink, and he looked away. "I ... I mean ... you were there ..."

"Ah ..." Lance could feel his own cheeks get warmer. "I-I ... I was pretty impressed ..."

"Oh. Good ..."

He took a deep breath to recollect his thoughts. "But if you ever do that again I'll kiss- I mean _kill_ you." He could feel his cheeks get even warmer. He didn't usually stumble over his words like that, and he blamed the fact he was thinking about kissing Keith so much in the past week. "Not that I'd have anything against kissing you ..." he added.

"Yes."

"Huh?"

"Oh, I thought you were asking if you can kiss me."

Lance couldn't tell if it was him or Keith that was blushing more, but he hoped it wasn't him. He didn't want to lose at blushing, after all.

"I- I mean, do you want me to?"

" _Yes_." Maybe it was just his imagination, but he could swear Keith sounded somewhat impatient. He wanted to tease him about that for a moment, but then decided against it, realizing he was just as impatient about kissing Keith.

So instead, he pulled him closer, and gently kissed him.

**Author's Note:**

> 10: Love realization  
> 14: "wake up please" / "I'm sorry"  
> 15: Begging  
> 16: If you dont stop me I will go on forever


End file.
